The millie is an idiot, plain and simple. Anyone who votes for this university moron is also a moron. But then again with lieberal voters being an idiot means never having to say your a moron.

"If we do this plan, Alberta and Saskatchewan will be better off 10 years from now than if we don't do this plan."

Offer me some proof. Show me a real economist that is willing to make predictions that far out....

And how are we going to accomplish it? Sask and Alberta together already put as much research into alternative energy sources and improving efficiency and intensity (not to mention carbon capture and carbon sequestration) as the rest of the provinces combined! But some how we are going to be doing more of that after Dion takes 5 BILLION out of our 2 provinces and their economies (40% of carbon emissions, 10% of Canadas population that get money back)

Yes that's what the plan is going to cost (the west). 5 billion that won't be going to more of same programs it'll be going to the tax. and then to income tax relief. Care to tell me where the population centers are??

I did not think my opinion of Dion could get much lower, but he even talked about how Obama doesn't like our dirty oil (takes alot of energy to extract it).... And the way to make the oil cleaner and make the US happy is to show that we are taxing the oil coming out and giving the money to income tax.

Can anyone tell me how that cleans our oil up? anyone?

Then he talked about how the price at the pump will not change.

How, if you tax the extraction, the refining, the distribution (diesel will be carbon taxed, just not gas) will the price not go up?? Do you think Imperial Oil is going to just eat the cost? I would bet they shift alot of their operations to areas without such a tax. That will obviously help our emissions, but what will it do to the economy?

I want to see Ralphie get mauled.
I want to see Ralphie maul Dionski too.

Any bets as to whether Dion is Liberal leader by the end of the summer recess? Enemies like Ralph the gopher, Dion doesn't need even though Dion is doing his best to make an enemy out of Ralf the gopher.

I think I get what Dion is saying... He 'sees' all the labourers that went out west for 'izzy money' signing up for university instead of getting their hands dirty.

And frankly, can anyone PLEASE tell me where this climate change /global warming is. the only change in my 51 years is that there used to be chinooks from the west, now they are from the south. They are still warm when it is freezeng cold so they are still welcome, not like a lieberal. So tax on Dion, go ahead and devastate the Alberta/ Sask. economy if you ever in your demented little mind get INTO POWER. OH yes CBC /CTV, he is not in power, got that, NOT IN POWER, yes Dion is not in power, hard for lieberals to understand, harder to find their hands being removed from the Canadian treasurys till, lieberal theives, where is the 41 million you stole!

The time has come for you people out in the west to stop threatening to seperate and actually do it. The time has come for you to organize yourselves the way the quebecois has, but don't waste your time with any phony referendums. Go straight for the throat. Started to threaten to seperate the way they do in Quebec but back it up with a willingness to do so.

Like Johnny Cretin (not a typo)and Pierre Trudeau before him, the Nutty Professor detests all things western. Remember Cretin's comments about how he preferred to deal with the east and Trudeau's one finger salute to western farmers. The eastern based Liberals hate us because we refuse to knuckle under to their social engineering schemes and politically correct zealotry.
I would suggest to the Nutty professor that he tread very lightly. Unlike Quebec...Alberta, Saskatchewan and B.C. do not rely on handouts from the rest of the country. There will be no sovereignty association nonsense. If he keeps on pushing he may find the divorce comes quickly and cleanly.

Good grief, Kate. When Dion joined the First Church of Climate Change, they must have fed him some Trudeaupiates! (Trudeau + opiate).

Dirty Oil or Bloody Oil. You decide.

Four major western oil companies, Exxon, Mobil, Shell, BP and Total, are about to sign US-brokered no-bid contracts with the US-installed Baghdad regime to begin exploiting Iraq’s oil fields. Saddam Hussein had kicked these firms out three decades ago when he nationalized Iraq’s foreign-owned oil industry for the benefit of Iraq’s national development. The Baghdad regime is turning back the clock.

This agreement comes as talks are continuing between the Washington and its Baghdad client regime over future US basing rights in Iraq. After some face-saving Iraqi objections, it is expected that Baghdad will sign a compact with Washington giving US forces control of Iraq and its air space in a manner very similar to Great Britain’s colonial arrangement with Iraq.

Interestingly, the same oil companies that used to exploit Iraq when it was a British colony are now returning. As former US Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan recently admitted, the Iraq war was all about oil. VP Dick Cheney stated in 2003 that the invasion of Iraq was about oil, and for the sake of Israel.

Meanwhile, according to Pakistani and Indian sources, Afghanistan just signed a major deal to launch a long-planned, 1680 km long pipeline project expected to cost $ 8 billion. If completed, the Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India pipeline (TAPI) will export gas and, later, oil from the Caspian Basin to Pakistan’s coast where tankers will transport it to the west.

The Caspian Basin located under the Central Asian states of Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Kazakkstan, holds an estimated 300 trillion cubic feet of gas and 100–200 billion barrels of oil. Securing the world’s last remaining known energy Eldorado is strategic priority for the western powers. China can only look on with envy.

But there are only two practical ways to get gas and oil out of landlocked Central Asia to the sea: through Iran, or through Afghanistan to Pakistan. For Washington, Iran is tabu. That leaves Pakistan, but to get there, the planned pipeline must cross western Afghanistan, including the cities of Herat and Kandahar.

http://www.lewrockwell.com/margolis/margolis114.html

Guess what?

You're using selective state.

There are a total of 37 oil companies from around the world that have been granted oil leases in Iraq, including five state oil corporations.

Not sure why you've singled out those four (unless you're reading Eric Margolis).

Exxon Mobil – US based

Shell – headquartered in Netherlands

BP – um, British Petroleum

Total – French. Large holding by Paul Desmarais, son-in-law of Jean Chretien.

The Afghan pipeline has long been talked about and planned.

Not quite sure what your point is.

This is the NEP all over again. The West will be screwed again for another decade, but that's okay by these Liebral SOBs. Man I hate those guys...

But don't you folks know that if you make it MORE expensive for companies to do business in Saskatchewan and Alberta, then they will dump even MORE money into green projects in those projects to reduce the amount that they pay in Carbon taxes.

/sarc off

I wonder what the name of the economist who fed him THAT line of bullspit is. It's a simple fact that apparently he doesn't understand - if it's more costly to extract oil from the ground here, then those companies will poor money into exploration in places where it is cheaper to extract - presumably places that are not bound to Kyoto targets and will not seek to reduce carbon.

As pointed out in the National Post today, none of the places that have implemented a carbon tax are better off today.

If Dion becomes Prime Minister, watch Canada meet its Kyoto targets and achieve M. Dion's reduction targets when Alberta and Saskatchewan leave and take their 40% of "Greenhouse emissions" with them. All of a sudden, the problem is solved.

And there won't be a language/cultural issue if the west says FU and starts negotiating with the southern neighbours.

If the eastern federal tanks (all 15 of them) start rolling westward through Manitoba the drivers will get bored due to lack of beer and turn back. Plus, Alberta's got Cold Lake!

U of R is gonna need some more buildings I think, if it is to take up the slack from all the job losses in the patch.

I have trouble believing that Saddam Hussein was out to benefit anyone but Saddam Hussein

Please qualify "Made in Washington" with the addition of "by Douchbag Democrats". Optional continuation phrase "Led by Blowhard Gore"

Thanks.

Meantime, someone should tell this guy that our biggest source of imported oil is Canada (17% of imports). Though Chavez does thank him and promises mucho puta if he visited Caracas. (wear protection, chollo)

"Dirty Oil or Bloody Oil. You decide."
The Kurds have decided.
...-

"Iraqi Kurds Sign Oil Deals with Canadian Firms

Baghdad, 25 June 2008 (AFP)
Iraq's autonomous Kurdish region said it has signed two oil contracts with Canada's Talisman Energy despite Baghdad's stiff opposition to such deals before a national oil law is drawn up.

The contracts were signed on Thursday by representatives of Talisman and the prime minister of the Kurdish regional government in northern Iraq, Nechirvan Barzani, his administration said late Monday in a statement.
It said a subsidiary of Talisman would acquire a 40-percent stake in the Kalar-Bawanoor block, where Calgary-based WesternZagros has a 40-percent stake. The remaining 20 percent is to go to the regional government.
WesternZagros, through its wholly-owned subsidiaries, already holds a production-sharing contract with the Kurdistan regional government.
A second Talisman subsidiary is to carry out an exploration programme under a two-year service agreement in a separate block."
http://www.iraqupdates.com/p_articles.php/article/32926

So Kate's query remains. Is there any evidence that the wizards at Tory HQ are set to exploit this gift? Not to hope that the rank and file would ever be consulted by the mavens who managed all those successful campaigns in the past, but it would be nice to think someone, somewhere has come up with something beyond, "we're screwed," pithy a line as that is. There should more, and it should be relentless. (Witty would be great, but that's probably asking too much.)

How delicious it is to say to a fiberal, that they take their marching orders from Washington..!!

Ohh..the gnashing of teeth, the rending of garments we will see!!..

hahahahahahaha!!..

Isn't Dion's comment an attempt to "interfere" in the American election?

The recent history (and likely prospects) of the University of Regina suggest that it will be weak reed on which to lean.

"Prof. Jaccard, a critic of the Liberals in the past, is a fan of the B.C. tax, calling it "the best carbon tax I have seen in the world.""

MSM is having a meltdown:

First it's "special adviser on climate change: then , it's "Mark Jaccard, a noted resource economist"; then, it's "Prof. Jaccard"; and then, it's "He is also a special adviser to the cabinet committee on climate action.".
The "academics", aka the intelligentsia, are the non-experts.
The expert is politician "Premier Gordon Campbell", him with the idiot mitts.

The Fear, The FEar, The FEAr, The FEAR. Campbell has the FEARS of the Doomsday.
...-

"Carbon tax could be reversed, special adviser to Campbell fears
Political pressure might doom it, he says

VANCOUVE -- Premier Gordon Campbell's special adviser on climate change says he fears critical and political pressure could prompt the Liberal government to back off the province's carbon tax.

Mark Jaccard, a noted resource economist at Simon Fraser University, made the comments in an interview yesterday shortly after he joined other academics at a news conference to argue for the tax linked to a 2.34-cent rise in gasoline prices on Canada Day. By 2012, the tax will be at seven cents a litre.

"I've seen politicians reverse themselves before after reading polls, so I want to see a good public discourse out there," Prof. Jaccard said. "I would say this is not a done deal at all."

Prof. Jaccard is a member of B.C.'s Climate Action Team, which was formed to provide feedback to the province's plan to cut greenhouse-gas emissions one-third by 2020. He is also a special adviser to the cabinet committee on climate action."
http://tinyurl.com/4rasym (g-m)
(No comments allowed by g-m)

So the Libranos and their apologists are psychics, Obama is the incoming President??

The Liberals are so generous with feeding the best material ever to the Conservatives for their election ads and STRAIGHT FROM THE HORSE'S MOUTH!

Poor Dion, the epitome of the Nutty Professor, the total package.

the math is izzy, halberta hand sas cat chewwan wit 10% hove de pipples will pay 40% hove da tax. when dey jobs fail dey will go to huniversity to become smart like me. - Borat Dion.

did any one see the other genius RalphG explaining that the benefits and the programs are so complex that the great unwashed just dont understand them yet.

Could the noose on tightening on Ralphy G at last?

Ralphie's frequent appearances on Mike Duffy Live have made him appear to be a bitter, sanctimonious, blindly partisan whiner who cannot accept the fact that the voters sent his party packing three years ago.

He so often speaks using the tired opener, "the fact of the matter is...." in between interruptions of others, if not hogging most of the airtime for himself.

I would enjoy Ralphie's smackdown whenever it comes.

Me & the wife got our Eco-bribe cheques in the mail . . $200 bucks. Woo Hoo . . . a beer budget supplement for our Dominion Day parties.

Thnx Gordo . . . for trying to bribe me with my money so you can chase the Greenie Jeanie.

How many years of global cooling has to happen before the environmental Emperor is seen to be buff nekkid ??

We are on year 11 now . . . and counting.

It ain't a Green plan.... it's a MEAN PLAN!!!! now that we are being clobbered by gas prices we are getting a Mean tax from Gordo thanks another Lieberal government at work. Just wait if little kermit dion gets in power we will all get to go to university and save da poler bears. NOT!
Cheers Bubba

And that the Liberal Green Shift was necessary to submit to demands of US Congress and an incoming President Obama for "clean" oil.

Nobody is an incoming President until the election has been held. Moreover, I would have thought that it was bad form, at the very least, and possibly a violation of diplomatic protocols, for an elected official to comment on another country's pending elections.

Hey cal2,just caught Ralphie on ctv,and he appears a little more agitated than usual!I read somewhere,that he is saying that he hasn't heard any negative feedback from his riding,but methinks his squirming tells another story.Bigger 'blue sweep' in the West come next election,and hopefully we won't have to suffer thru one more appearance by ralph on the political shows!!!

For those wishing to glimpse the future after the Green Shift, go to your nearest grocery store, and stand in the produce section. The green produce that you see now will be shifted off the displays of the future.

Perhaps the empty produce sections can be leased out for safe injection sites.

Fortunately Dion and his idiots are overlooking to laws: For every action there is a reaction and the law of unintended consequences. If, as a manufacturer, it is cheaper for me to produce in China, where they don't care about the environment and global warming, I am going to shut down my shop and move there leaving a number of Canadians out of work. But in a shrinking economy they can go to the U of S where they will be indoctrinated by left wing thinkers and all will be well ---- provided they learn to drive a taxi.

Dion's plan has NO money set aside for funding research. In any university. Or elsewhere.

He requires the full 15 million for his bribing of the citizen to vote for him.

There is no money for research. No money to develop new technology. No money for low cost loans to enable our very own Canadian factories to install whatever new technology is developed. None.

Dion needs all that money to bribe we voters. And particularly, in the East - Ontario and Quebec.

Note that Steve Janke of Angry in the Great White North has clearly shown that the data shows that there cannot be any reduction of carbon emissions in Dion's plan. None. He requires no reduction because he requires all the tax money to fund his bribery of us.

Exactly right - what is Dion saying about the 'incoming president Obama'? Is he doing his very own NAFTA-gate? Is he interfering in the US election? Well?

And is he just a patsy of the US govt? Is that the type of Canadian govt he plans to set up?

Ralphie is squirming.

he hasnt heard any negative feedback because his constituents have stopped talking to him.

he will receive a sizable pension, but will be one of those with no legacy. out to the dustbin of history, the ugliest possible fate for an ego politician.

Dion is further explaining his tax plan, as essentially, not taking money from 'Canadians'. Oh no. It's taking money from The Multinationals, who are always an Evil Other in socialist thinking.

The way he sees it, most of the big industries that emit carbon in Canada are - well, they are foreign-owned. He doesn't explain how many and he doesn't explain why. The reason is that Canadian taxes are so high that we haven't developed an Investor Class in Canada and so we rely heavily on foreign investors to build our factories. We just are employees in them.

OK - so, he's got his basic Evil Guys. The multinationals who own our industries. He plans to tax them - and give their money to Canadians. Remember, they are all, according to him, Others. They are Multinationals. Not Canadians. He ignores that the employees are all Canadian.

What will these foreign multinationals do who are polluting our skies (again, he merges emissions with pollution, which are two different things)? Why, according to Dion, they'll INVEST!!!
They'll invest MORE of their money (they keep it stashed in a bank in Switzerland or under their bed). They'll invest in Clean Technology! To evade the taxes!

Terence Corcoran in the NP writes, from an interview with Dion, that Dion claims that

"The carbon tax load on energy corporations will also be less onerous for Canadians, says Mr. Dion, because much of the industry is foreign-owned. If anybody loses, he says, it might be foreign shareholders. Canadians, especially in energy-producing provinces, will benefit because firms will boost investment to avoid the carbon tax and take advantage of lower general corporate tax rates."

Note that Dion's isolationist economic 'mode of thought' ignores that what happens in the global economy will affect Canada. He is utterly indifferent to that foreign shareholder, who won't necessarily invest money- which they don't have because it's all been taxed away by the Canadian govt'. They'll pull out and go to China and India and Mexico.

Corcoran continues:
"Here's how he sees the growth boom from taxation. "I think it's very good for Saskatchewan and Alberta." At the end of the day, the taxes will "attract a lot of investment [from around] the world. These companies are multinationals. If you ask them to invest in reduced emissions, they will invest in Canada.... This will happen if you tax the carbon."

But -- I asked -- it's only logical that if you carbon tax industry, you can also expect job losses and lower investment. It's not a question he answers.

Mr. Dion put the carbon tax in the context of his corporate tax reductions and incentives for investment in new green technology. "You will see a lot of investment in these two provinces precisely because we will ask these multinational companies to invest ? to decrease their emissions and save taxes."

That's insane. How can he think that if you tax a multinational company, that they will react by investing MORE money? Does his govt provide low cost loans to help that company install new technology? No. Does his govt provide money for research to actually develop the new technology? No.
He uses it all to bribe voters, particularly in the East.

Dion informs us that Europe has had 'great success with carbon taxes'. NO - IT HASN'T.

Corcoran continues: "Foreign experience with carbon taxes as economic policy is far from the unequivocal success Mr. Dion talks about. He seemed unaware of the record of job losses and uneven economic performance recorded in Europe in the wake of various environmental taxes and energy price moves."..After more than a decade of rampant green taxation and regulation, a sort of lab test for every policy fantasy known to economists and politicians, Europe essentially ended up proving the policies really didn't work."

What's Dion plan about? Tax and bribe. It has nothing to do with the environment. Nothing. It's a plan to get him into power - and when it doesn't work environmentally - heck, he'll blame, oh, the Americans. Or someone. And when it is disastrous economically, he'll blame..or, the Americans. Or someone. But the primary agenda is to bribe the voter to get him into office.

Who would you trust regarding this Green Plan...Harper the Economist, or Dion the Sociology Professor? I just can't come up with any publicly acceptable words to describe my thoughts on Dion and this blatant plan to transfer wealth to Central Canada.

I hope Gormley leads the charge for Western separation. Its time has come.

Gosh, the University of Regina campus will end up covering half of Saskatchewan what with all those new research facilities for green technology employing a million former energy workers and farmers!

Darned clever fellows these Liberals...

I especially love Dionsky's comment about the world price of oil being a dampener on increasing gas prices due to carbon tax on extraction and refinenement of oil Hey idiot, there is no world price on gasoline. A first year economics student would not make this mistake, unless they wanted to fail their first mid term paper. Hey professor, you just failed your first carbon tax test.

Ralphy looks like the original hick on a Saturday night, always there with lard in his hair and his ears tied back with haywire.

Ralphy has been cruising for a smack down, he's long overdue. His desperation played out in the HOC and on the political shows or anywhere he appears is palpable. He just can't contain his anger. Can't be good for his health.

Alberta already has a carbon tax of $15 per tonne paid by industry. ...since July 1st , 2007.

Millions have been paid in carbon taxes into this Innovation Fund which pays for R&D for energy alternatives .

We did not need Dion to big brother us or control and punish us to "do the right thing".

He can take his Marxist nanny state elitist academic blatherings and stick them where the sun don't shine as far as I am concerned. If Canadians are stupid enough to vote for this eccentiric radical egotistical social engineering freak then I would be at the front of the line to build that firewall around Alberta and the west.

The fact that so called "smart" media are actually applauding this tells me that Liberal slime runs deep in this country- personal gain over the country's good.

Make s me sick.

Dion says that the reduction in corporate taxation rates will cause investments to increase in those same corporations. He says that the reduction will be from 22.12% to 14%. He's lying.

It's the Conservatives, in their 2007 budget, who reduced those corporate tax rates to 15% from 22.12. Got that? The Conservative 2007 budget reduced corporate tax rate from 22.12 to 15% by 2012. Four years.

Dion's 'tax reduction' would be only ONE PERCENT of that. To 14%. But the Conservative 2007 budget was the one that reduced it by almost 7%. Note Dion. Yet he's claiming credit. He doesn't tell you that his reduction is only 1%.

Just as he claims that personal income taxes will be reduced by TEN PERCENT! Liar. His planned reduction is from 15% to 13.3%. That's a 1.5% reduction. Not ten percent. He's misinforming us, he's being intellectually dishonest by his manipulation of the figures.

Oh, and the Conservative 2007 budget also allowed manufacturers to write off capital investments in machinery within a two year 50% allowance.

And, the Conservative 2007 budget increase the lifetime capital gains exemption for small business from 500,000 to 750,000. The first increase in nearly TWENTY years.

So much for the Liberals.

Dion lives in a fictional seminar world, a world totally alienated from reality, from real people working in non-govt funded jobs. Remember, Dion has only worked in the safe havens of tenured, pensioned, automatic promotion govt jobs (academic, political). He has no experience of business, no experience of capitalist competition, no experience of meeting a payroll, no experience of dealing with customers. No experience of foreign competition. None.

He lives in a purely fictional world, where, when he says that IF you tax the Evil People, the multinationals who OWN our industries, THEN, they will invest lots and lots of money to prevent those taxes.
It never occurs to him that those same shareholders won't invest lots and lots of money. They'll simply pull up and invest lots and lots of money in China, India, Mexico and elsewhere.

It never occurs to Dion that his smooth statement that the 'University of Regina' will get lots of money for research to develop the new technology, doesn't examine where that lots and lots of money will come from.
His plan has NO investment for research. So, who is funding all this presumed future research? He doesn't know and after all, its HIS Seminar.

Dion lives in the fictional isolate world of the seminar room. He has no clue about reality.

This is not just an east-west hosing it is an urban-country hosing.

Canada has grown strong on its resource based industries: fishing and agriculture, forestry, oil and gas and mining. All of these resource commodities support our standard of living and support our urban lifestyle.

So our city dwelling environmentalists are actually electing to starve themselves without agriculture, freeze themselves without energy and expose themselves without shelter provided by mining and forestry.

The green movement is more than just biting the hand that feeds them and you. They are in fact choosing to exterminate themselves.

Dion is the gift that keeps on giving. Prediction: less than 10 LPC seats west of the lakehead.

Dion's Green shift is,of course, nonsense and worse than that,it is destructive nonsense.
Dion is the Mad Hatter.
Talking to some folks I was amazed at how many believe it is a good idea. They have not considered the implications of this plan.
I hope that the CPC war-room is up to the job of deflating this balloon and not with cartoons either. (I'm thinking 30 sec. TV ads near news times)
My belief is that the greatest task is to sway the well-intentioned voters who might fall for Dion's plan. This will be difficult with the MSM syncophants drooling at the prospects of a lib return and actively pumping Dion's plan along with abetting the scandal du jour tactics we have seen.
I wonder what we can do to help in this battle?
Your thoughts?

Somewhere out there,Rae is smiling and iggy is smirking. This summers BBQ tour will be a slow roasting of the absent-minded professor and his sidekick Garth. There is not a chance in Hell that the deficiencies in this green shift were overlooked. The next wave of liberal power has set Dion up for a big fall,and strapped the problem child to his back.

You gotta know exactly how much support Dion has within the Lieberal ranks when he has to resort to having Garth Turncoat toadying around with him.

Dopey McCallum has written a column or two about the great idea Dion's Shaft is, he's not the brightest beyond his own mind. Iggy pop is off setting us straight on immigration, no credibility there, they voted for the Conservative Bill, what's to sell?
Buffalo Bob is busy sucking up to the folks in and around Tronna and planning his strategy for the next leadership. He's got THE POWER behind him. Iggy's sort of flying on his own.

As a card carrying Harper Conservative, I'm not terribly impressed with the Conservative carbon emissions reduction plan, which is aimed at 35 major emiters, mostly in Alta. and Sask. Coal, oil and gas, potash, and manufacturing. It does however spread the pain more evenly. The Liberal plan is NEP heavy not lite. It hammers everyone but rewards the indigent and single moms. I also would not count on the U.S. doing much as legisation has to pass congress, senate and Pres.

A Strategic Counsel poll by Globe and Mail has gone horribly wrong for Dion.

I sure the earlier pre-written headline of "Global Warming Fears Boost Dion Green Plan: Poll" hit the circular file with a dismal plot.

As for Goodale, I am sure all the good people in Saskatchewan will enjoy their Lib free status after the next election.

We don't need to break Canada up in a 'divorce' over Dion's wild-eyed plan. What we need is a trial separation. Manitoba and West get Stephen Harper as PM and the Conservatives in power and Kenora and East get Stephan Dion and the Liberals. After four years, we see who is better off and reconcile under the most successful party. Shouldn't politics be based on common sense?

My favorite Dionism:

"Da plan will ave much for rearal Canadians."

"." At the end of the day, the taxes will "attract a lot of investment [from around] the world. "

WOW

kamikaze?

Something isn't quite right here.

Dions sudden reversal of his carbon tax is one thing.
Pitting regions of the country against each other is classic Liberal ideology, but never as obvious as this plan is.
They (Libs) are frantic and sloppy in getting this msg out NOW.
Add to these points all the criticism others have validly pointed out (thanks ET) makes one wonder how this made it through the Liberal policy blender.
It looks and smells way to desperate.

Unless,

Its not about the Liberal party's desperation anymore. For the Liberals it has all the earmarks of political suicide.

It's about using Canada as a tool for uncle Mo's universal Carbon Trading scam. A tool to prevent Americans waking up to the AGW scam prior to November.
If the US manages to throw out Kyoto via a presidental election, Gore and Strong et al are doomed. Using Canada as an example of "go Green or else" gives Obama an edge in pushing his green agenda without articulating it.

Call me paranoid but Canada is NOT that big of a deal. My gut is telling me something bigger is in play here.
Its not just Alberta and Saskatchewan being offered up for sacrifice;
It's Canada.

And Dion chose to flight test this baby?
This plan doesn't have enough gas to get home and he knows it.

"Da plan will ave much for rearal Canadians."

I think the plan is all about the rear end of canadians. the west can bend over .

Dion fails to mention;
BC
Manitoba
Ontario
Quebec
Newfoundland

as provinces with petroleum industries or refineries. Aren't these polluters too?
The gift that keeps on giving..........

[quote]And is he just a patsy of the US govt? Is that the type of Canadian govt he plans to set up? [/quote]

ET,
YES! You got that right, but he doesn't understand shit! Follow the Gore.. do what he wants.. screw Canada. Stay on script!
Good Boy.. Good boy!

I watched a Canadian public affairs meeting last night, on one of those Cspan like channels, the focus was understanding the US election and what that means for Canadian policy.

The Panelists: CBC anchor/ UN type diplomat/ Quebec Political scientist (academic)

IMHO the CBC dude was near right, the diplomat was lost in another world, the academic was best! he stuck to reasonable facts and probable consequences

BUT... they all made simple stuff complex with an elitist attitude. We are so smart, so much better, so much more able, why are we marginalized. Poor little munchkins.. can you spare a crumb?

One of the things that bothered me was that a question, from an African in the audience, was not necessary if the MSM was not fear mongering... "What will the American's do to Canadians because of the NAFTA affair".
The CBC Anchor smiled.. What a slime ball

Hmm... not one word on how 9/11 events changed US policy (except hate for Bush)! What does that mean? Is the contempt hidden? They deserved it?
Is Bush a buzz word for screw America?

Puddin and Pie:

Dion fails to mention;
BC
Manitoba
Ontario
Quebec
Newfoundland

What a coincidence, Grtis have more than one total seat in those provinces. BTW, this talk of "big emitters" seems misleading. If we total up the "emissions" of cars, surely they are make up the largest contribution. Dion couldn't include cars, then he would have to directly carbon tax gasoline, which would be political suicide (though I think his plan is anyway).

I suspect Dion had a different idea about carbon taxes, more universal. I think the party added on the regional shaft stuff. The funny thing is it seems so transparently politically pandering. Did Grits honestly think nobody would notice. Pretty cynical politics on their part, eh?

Or, perhaps they are just trying to get rid of him? Either way, Dion has been caught playing political and number games. As ET points out, his carbon tax revenue figures seem to assume no reduction in emissions. It makes me wonder how the leader of a proud and powerful political party, with all the advisory and analytical assets available, would make so many schoolboy mistakes.

That leaves a third possibility - Dion isn't listening to anyone, except his own beautiful mind. His point about taxation promoting further investment is juvenile and laughable, certainly not supportable by experience or theory.

BTW, Stephane, thank you. Now Tories have chance at majority, to reduce Grits (with help from NDP) to Toronto/Atlantic provinces rump. As for the Green party, who cares.

[quote] I also would not count on the U.S. doing much as legisation has to pass congress, senate and Pres. [/quote]

Mike W,
You forgot the rights of "States" & the Courts.. The presidency can be used as a bully pulpit... but the whole snow job is near impossible.. Thats why it is what it is...

Just remember: "China's Tax" China will thank you Dion.

OHYGOSH, Dion's sputtering in incomprehensible. Gormley really wound him up. For a while it sounded like he was misting up and getting a little teary-eyed.

You picked a real winner, Liberals! Too bad you're trying to wreck the country with this loser.

Y'know, I've been pondering this new "Green Shi*t" Policy (GSP) of Dion's for some days now, and it occurs to me that it cannot possibly be the kind of policy initiative that most people think it is.  Let me explain.

Dion is not stupid.  I know, I know, everyone here is almost agape in slack-jawed amazement at the astonishingly tone-deaf nature of Dion's message in trying to sell this policy pronouncement.  Yet while part of me wants to join the chorus in proclaiming Dion a moron, I know he's not stupid.  He's survived for many years in academia (where stupidity is one of the few inexcusable crimes), and he survived — and even prospered — in Chretien's inner circle.  Da Boss may have been many things, but tolerant of dummies he was not.

So what explains this vociferous promotion of an almost brain-dead (and, to the West, highly antagonistic) policy?

My take on it is this: months ago, the tall foreheads of the Liberal party met privately with M'sieu Dion and laid the facts out before him.  "Stephane, you're never going to be the Prime Minister.  Harper's approval ratings aren't stellar, but he's light-years ahead of you.  With the exception of die-hard Liberals in Montreal, Toronto, Vancouver and the blogosphere, pretty much everyone else in the nation thinks you're dead meat — and if you're dead meat, then so is the Party.  As long as you're at the helm, we'll never win a majority, even if we keep the CPC from winning one.  And so, Stephane, we're asking you to do the honourable thing.  We want you to fall on your sword."

At this point, Stephane hesitates.  If he simply resigns, he goes down in Canadian history as another feckless loser, someone who can't even sell his memoirs, which are doomed to the remainder bins at Chapters/Indigo.  What does he do?

So he makes a suggestion: he'll take one for the LPC, but he wants to go out swinging for the stuff he believes in, even if no one else does.  He needs time, time to craft a policy which will maintain his environmental bona fides (gotta think of those fat consulting gigs after he's turfed, y'know) and allow him to write the memoir that makes him a man of principle, unwilling to compromise even when the Canadian public turned against him.  Something that smacks of the noble defeat, instead of the mere rout.

And thus the GSP was born.  He knows it's antagonistic to energy-producing provinces.  He knows that it doesn't actually do anything to curb emissions.  He knows that the timing, when the average price of gasoline in Canada has risen almost 40% in the last twelve months, couldn't possibly be worse.  He knows that it's hypocritical for a liberal (and Liberal) to suggest a policy that places most of the economic burden on one region of the country, when his liberal principles would otherwise decry the social injustice of making a minority pay for the privilege of the majority.  He knows all this, and more besides.  This is the way he leaves, after howls of outrage from a Canadian public that can't believe their ears and eyes.  With an approval rating of only 10% (the lowest of any leader of the Liberal party in Canadian history), the GSP is doing the job it was designed to do — allow Dion the opportunity to leave as a man defeated, not by crude public-opinion polls, but by the ignorance and intransigence of a Canadian public that was not ready to do the right and honourable thing for future generations.

So he turns his back on us all, proclaiming a curse on both our houses, and walks off into the sunset, maintaining his heroic self-image in the process: a prophet is not without honour, save amongst his own country and people, etc.  And the tall foreheads, the éminences grise of the LPC, get what they want: a new leader, someone who polls much, much better against Harper than poor ol' Dion.

Maybe as soon as the end of August, Dion's gone, replaced by an "interim" leader (Rae, Iggy, whomever) who will come out swinging against Harper.  It wouldn't surprise me.

garth wood - nice try with the fictional scenario. heh.

With regard to your comment on the academic world, I beg to differ. I'm an academic, and I assure you that stupidity is not only tolerated by in many cases, encouraged, in the academic world.

Remember, a key aspect of the non-scientific fields in academia, is The Word. And words can mean anything and everything. Therefore, the non-scientific fields can make all sorts of utopian rhetorical essentially fictional claims - and there's no data base required to either prove or disprove that scheme. And that's exactly what Dion is doing.

He assures us that the plan won't harm Canadians because 'most of the emitters are foreign-owed'. He ignores those that are Canadian; he ignores that these companies employ Canadians. He then assures us that these companies will all invest in 'new technology'; he ignores that the new technology is not ready; that it's expensive and that it might be more profitable for them, to simply up and transfer their investments to new industries in China and India.

In other words, I think he, as a socialist utopian, is really stupid.

ET:

Nah.  It's an act.  (And by the way, I probably qualify as an academic, too — at least, if having three post-secondary degrees can do that... I think you're failing to make a distinction between "stupid" [which is unforgiveable] and "wilfully blind" [which is often encouraged in academia, as part of a "go along to get along" ethos].)

Dion's done.  But he's done his way.  This entire drama is to protect his ego on the way out.  That's why I'm kinda happy to see it (Dion will soon be gone) and kinda sad at the same time (the LPC may end up with a leader that'll poll much better than Dion ever did).

Should be an interesting summer.

And by the by, would it be too much to ask for you to capitalize the first letter of my first and last name?  Thanksmuch.

Dion is a loon.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ka4XWFgihRE

Posted this at the Kate killing the polar bears thread by mistake.

"...but rewards the indigent and single moms."

Now there's the biggest myth. There's no reward for anybody in this, other than those in the attached bureaucracy that actually get to play with some of the 15 billion the public will never see. The Liberals don't deliver on money promises - they never have. The closest they ever get to actually putting out the millions they promise occurs when one of their self-aggrandizing programs actually has some part that of necessity involves folks outside the circle. That only happens to the extent that they can point to it and say "look what we did". How many times have they committed the very same dollars to the very same programs in each successive budget or monetary pronouncement. How many times do they actually hand out any money?

The indigent and the bulk of single moms do not participate in Canada's tax system in any meaningful way. They collect a little bit (if they file - not something the indigent and low-incomers do). All this group will see for the most part is increased cost of everything and maybe an occasional small cheque or increase in their GST receipt.

They will simply do what they do now, but more so: expand their underground economic activities. People that don't have enough money to play Canada's tax games, don't participate in the middle class dream. They run in a parallel universe outside of Canada's tax regime. All the carbon tax will do will increase the membership on the "other side".

Even Ray Heard has come out saying that the Libs face defeat under the 'incomprehensible Dion'..more blood and guts flying after eddie demands Martin apologize to cretin..see headliner at Bourque

Does this mean Ralphie gets his own genuine "Red Ryder BB gun" for Christmas this year? He does so well with the bull and blather, no Gormley will ever fear him down.

I'm with ET. I listened to the Gormley tape. Dion really thinks this will work. He really believes expanding a department or two at the U of R will make up for a devastated resource and ag industry. I believe he was sincere when he said he said he cared for every citizen of Canada and mentioned his daughter, and I have a finely tuned BS meter.

He is not a cynical calculator like Turdo or the da liddle guy. He's a dreamer that is totally unqualified to be PM. His visit to the Stampede will be brutal. He almost evokes pathos.

Moze da westerly pipples dunterstant boat green pinnacles han neats me spent da moneys voar dem.

The green shift is a "BOHICA",which stands for "BEND OVER HERE IT COMES AGAIN". I agree that there is a bigger issue than Canada at stake here, Mo Strong is in the background pulling some strings. We in the West must seperate and let those Eastern Bastards Freeze In The Dark.

"U of R is gonna need some more buildings I think, if it is to take up the slack from all the job losses in the patch."
Good luck with that. Work on the Lab Building Addition at the U of R began 3 years ago. It has gone way, way overbudget, and just enough of the first floor was finished last September so it could be used for a study area. Work is still underway on the first floor, and the upper floors will take years to finish.

This French citizen is clearly out of his league here. Professor he may be, though as a politician the guy is just out of freaking mind.
Seems that he really does not care, as it may be with professors, who for the most part live in never, never land, that they get well paid for by the very people that professors try to screw out of making a decent living with legal and valuable resource that contributes a great deal to the state of human development today and foreseeable future.
The real life is not a laboratory to make experiments with humanoids.
Someone should tell the learned man that human kind is not capable to screw the planet, for as far as anything goes the planet will go on way past those idiots that come up with that ‘sheet’ about them causing anything at all.
Carlin, the comedian’s, monologue would acquaint the guy with the notion that if anything, the planet is going to do away with him, if it chooses to, and the time is not soon enough, perhaps past due.
The French citizen wants to suck $15.4-billion a year from Canadian citizens just to his aggrandizement; this would put Stalin and assorted fascist, socialist and communist in shame, Nazis don’t qualify here, simply because the guy is multinational as it were.
Does anybody know, if there was anything like this in all of human history as stupid as that? Even slaves in classical era had a say in affairs of the city states, although Canadian citizens just may go for it, on the surface it looks really warm and fuzzy, even cuddly you might say.
How can someone come up with this kind of stupidity, for lack of better expression, and be a leader of a political party aspiring to be the government of a free country. Who, other then the standard 10% of idiots that live in the world, would vote for this kind of shaft.
There might be a call for an exception from the 10% in case of Ontario and a greater exception in the case of the place where people go with fingers on their lips, brrrm, brrrm, let you guess where this is, BC in general and Vancouver in particular is in rivalry in this case.
To top it all, the French citizen is going to talk to the people that he will screw the most.
You have one guess as to what the citizens will say. If nothing else you have to give the guy credit for being somewhat of a masochist if masochist is your persuasion.
In the large scheme of things of course the French citizen does not count. In the small scheme of things like Ontario and BC, it counts at the top.
It is upon the citizens of Canada to tell the French citizen to go and faak himself into oblivion. The previous is harsh, however it is required to get the attention of the citizens of this country to get a sense of proportion.
You see those in government will take care of themselves; they will ride in limos that will be supplied by their ability to force Canadians to pay for it. To fly places that is supplied by the Canadians by force of the government. They will increase they pay to what ever they think will be satisfactory, because they can. If you are the one paying, well, tough faacking luck. If your income is low, the political class really can not care lest they get real, for they can’t.

BOHICA: very funny; I'll have to remember that one!

Follow the money, people; follow the money.

[quote]Does anybody know, if there was anything like this in all of human history as stupid as that? [/quote]

LEV,
Yeah ! The W2K project: About a Mickey mouse clock that time dates trivia, but really runs the world... That was a script by, none other than, Big Al

It was variation of the Money Canon.. Stuff it full of money...and the money disappears.. and everybody is so relived that the world didn't stop.. They don't even ask, WTF was the name of that horse.... Beautiful.. Big Al

(Edit Lyrics and add music)

I am worried though. By pandering to the large population centers (Toronto)and perhaps by sucking up to BC in some fashion, it might be possible to pick up enough seats to enslave the rest of the country to serve Ontario. Time and again, the only reason the Libs kept power was because they quite deliberately made policies hurtful to Canada but which sold in Ontario (and also Quebec). They may not have as much Quebec support now but I expect they'll find some way to pay them off. I read a lot of Ontario commentary and they're all for the Green shaft.

Just in case you had any doubts, the USA will buy all the oil Canada will sell us, for the rest of my lifetime.